The report by More in Common, a new nonprofit dedicated to understanding and healing political polarization in the United States and Europe, is based on a nationwide survey of nearly 8,000 people conducted this past December and January.

It found that between 51 and 66 percent of Americans agree there is “pressure to think a certain way about” each of the aforementioned topics, with immigration seen as the least sensitive and Islam the most.

As Congress abdicates its role, columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. says voters must take up the role of checking President Trump. (Adriana Usero/The Washington Post)

Meanwhile, 68 percent report that “it is acceptable for me to express what I think” about race, or Islam, only among “people who are like me.” On immigration, 73 percent feel that way; on gay, lesbian and gender issues, the figure is 70 percent.

This is understandable considering the SJW swarms and the increasingly violent behavior of the radical left. The op-ed is okay: some general pandering to the history of speech policing, etc. And, they just can’t help but add a dose of irony – there’s a link to something about checking Trump’s autocratic, blah, blah, blah. It’s ironic because Trump is the one steady figure demonstrating how to just dispense with the fear and say it anyway.

President Trump on Tuesday called adult-film star Stormy Daniels “Horseface” and threatened to “go after” her after he won a court victory over his alleged mistress.

“’Federal Judge throws out Stormy Danials [sic] lawsuit versus Trump. Trump is entitled to full legal fees.’ @FoxNews Great, now I can go after Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer in the Great State of Texas. She will confirm the letter she signed! She knows nothing about me, a total con!’ he tweeted.

BAM!

One will note that Trump keeps doing this kind of thing and it all keeps working for him. This will too.

The lesson is: 1) live in fear and self-censor and watch the causes for self-censor multiple, or; 2) Just say it, win, and laugh while the nuts cry.

One third of able-bodied American men between 25 and 54 could be out of job by 2050, contends the author of “The Future of Work: Robots, AI and Automation.”

“We’re already at 12% of prime-aged men without jobs,” said Darrell West, vice president of the Brookings Institution think tank, at a forum in Washington, D.C. on Monday. That number has grown steadily over the past 60 years, but it could triple in the next 30 years because of new technology such as artificial intelligence and automation.

It could be even worse for some parts of the population, West argued. The rate for unemployment of young male African Americans, for instance, is likely to reach 50% by 2050.

A quarter of Americans spend almost an entire 24 hours without going outside and downplay the negative health effects of only breathing indoor air, according to a new survey claiming a new “indoor generation.”

“We are increasingly turning into a generation of indoor people where the only time we get daylight and fresh air mid-week is on the commute to work or school,” Peter Foldbjerg, the head of daylight energy and indoor climate at VELUX, a window manufacturing company, said in a statement.

VELUX commissioned the “Indoor Generation Report,” published Tuesday, that found 77 percent of Americans don’t believe that breathing air inside is any worse than pollution outside.

It’s unclear how dangerous indoor air is in the modern era — reports by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency evaluating indoor air quality are from 1987 and 1989, which found that it is two to five times more polluted than outside.

Humidity, mold growth, inadequate temperature and being in close quarters with other people are all cited risks associated with poor air quality indoors.

It’s a big, beautiful world out there. I’m typing this outside as I add some of Nicaragua’s finest vaporized tobacco leaves to the air quality.

Something tells me that the younger people are driving up this statistic. Maybe that’s one reason why:

Twenty-seven percent of millennials said that stress often bothered them at work, compared to the 12% of baby boomers that said the same. Millennials were the group most likely to have stress interfere with their work. About a third of millennials (34%) said that they felt stress made them less productive, while only 19% of their older colleagues felt the same.

“Millennials are more likely to have insecure contracts, low rates of pay and high entry-level workloads. The pressures they face in today’s employment market are very different to past generations,” MHF’s Richard Grange said.

Americans and other denizens of the West have been in a unique historical bubble since the industrial revolution. That bubble is bursting. The insecure economy is only part of the overall problem. And there is a problem:

Major depression has a diagnosis rate of 4.4 percent in the United States, affecting more than 9 million commercially insured Americans.

Diagnoses of major depression have risen dramatically by 33 percent since 2013. This rate is rising even faster among millennials (up 47 percent) and adolescents (up 47 percent for boys and 65 percent for girls).

Women are diagnosed with major depression at higher rates than men (6 percent and nearly 3 percent, respectively).

People diagnosed with major depression are nearly 30 percent less healthy on average than those not diagnosed with major depression. This decrease in overall health translates to nearly 10 years of healthy life lost for both men and women.4

A key reason for the lower overall health of those diagnosed with major depression is that they are likely to also suffer from other health conditions. Eighty-five percent of people who are diagnosed with major depression also have one or more additional serious chronic health conditions and nearly 30 percent have four or more other conditions.5

People diagnosed with major depression use healthcare services more than other commercially insured Americans. This results in more than two times higher overall healthcare spending ($10,673 compared to $4,283).

We’ve got the numbers, they’ve got the rate of growth. Blue Cross.

This report, while eye-opening, is the product of the insurance industry. I smell money. Look at the information and graphs about pills. It’s interesting. These people and their pharma friends make big money pushing dope – for depression and everything else under the sun. That’s costly though it’s clear they’d like to avoid larger costs via payouts for associated auxiliary treatments. It makes sense for their bottom line. It makes little sense for the people.

As I stated at the beginning, all of this stuff is related. There’s a hard link between the mental issues and the heart/obesity/etc. physical epidemic. And with those and the fears, the indooring, the stress, and a thousand other factors.

Plainly put: American society is fractured, faltering, and increasingly trivial, idiotic, and insane. Plainer: it looks like decline. Already approaching 1,000 words, I’ll end here. More on this subject, I think, sooner than later – especially regarding the younger generations. I’m already planning a related piece for next week’s TPC column. For now, draw your own conclusions. Maybe step outside for a bit. Exercise. Kick a bot.

A perhaps fitting release for Halloween: An eye-opening, if slightly demoralizing study from Cato, finds Americans live in fear of words. (Carlin got this years ago).

Americans Say Political Correctness Has Silenced Discussions Society Needs to Have; Most Have Views They’re Afraid to Share

Nearly three-fourths (71%) of Americans believe that political correctness has done more to silence important discussions our society needs to have. A little more than a quarter (28%) instead believe that political correctness has done more to help people avoid offending others.

The consequences are personal-58% of Americans believe the political climate today prevents them from saying things they believe. Democrats are unique, however, in that a slim majority (53%) do not feel the need to self-censor. Conversely, strong majorities of Republicans (73%) and independents (58%) say they keep some political beliefs to themselves.

If one loose cannon sets off a state of emergency in your state or at your “school,” you may have a worse problem that just him. Florida Today.

This kind of goes with the failing schools and falling IQs thing.

Americans used to bravely stare down bears, whales, and British troops. Now they recoil in horror and fear from pronouns, banana peels, and geometry.

Hussein Obama is meeting with assorted military yes men and foreign policy hacks today to discuss martial options in Syria. I’m sure the one option not discussed is leaving everything the hell alone and minding our own business.

Ahead of the conclave an anonymous source quoted Hussein:

If it is to be destabilized, we must appropriate. Money … for rebels fighting Aleppo. More refugees and Hillary … and we must show [Putin or Trump(?)] we mean democracy. If you like your quagmire, you can keep your quagmire. Many women were offended. I know that there are extremist Christians who believe guns and God will vote. Nowhere, America. Shanked it right. Affordable generals. Healthcare. Flooding Matthew over Haiti. Vacation.

No-one is yet sure what Dear Leader was saying but it certainly sounded important. Out of an abundance of caution a psychiatrist and a caddy have been summoned to the oval office.

In related news the Pentagon recently published a 72-page field guide for implementing transgender weirdness in the politically correct freak show formerly known as the U.S. Armed Services. The booklet addresses “‘gender dysphoria,’ or ‘the distress that some transgender individuals experience due to a mismatch between their gender and their sex assigned at birth.'”

You can now plainly see why Putin must tremble with fear. I wonder if the poor man can even sleep at night.

I’m not making this up. You can’t make this stuff up anymore. Science fiction cannot compete with the new reality. The Policy Guide.

U.S. Department of Queer Studies and Abject Fantasy.

I say again: this crowd cannot beat the Russians. And they will be fools to try. They’re fools period.

Most movies do not appeal to me. I generally take in the theater at the suggestion of and in the company of my daughter. Before I get into this column let me review the movies I’ve seen lately.

Captain America: Civil War. Rated, by me: B. It was okay as both a superhero movie and as libertarian commentary about obeying your conscious rather than rote orders. Okay it was.

Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice. B-. Not bad but not what I’d (we’d) hoped for. Batfleck was awesome! Henry plays a good Supes. Wonder Woman was stunning – the 3 minutes we got of her. There was way too much filler.

The Hobbit: Part Whatever. F. The ghost of Tolkien is looking for Peter Jackson right now like a Nazgul on a ring thief.

Star Wars, Episode Too Many, A New New Hope. C. A PC remake of the original with a wimpy Darth Vader and a bigger Death Star.

Then, just the other day, I ventured into Zootopia. Every once in a while the Disney machine gets one right. I actually enjoyed it! A! It’s no wonder Rotten Tomatoes rated it 98% fresh. Fresh carrots, here, I suppose. Like Star Wars it reminded me of something – not another, older movie about a mammalian metropolis – I recalled a book about political theory.

Disney.

The animation, acting (voice acting) and the flow were all top-notch. The plot was well-developed and unfolded with a suspenseful, surprising rhythm.

Judy Hopps is a small-town bunny with big dreams of becoming a police officer in the big city. She defies the odds and makes the force – the very first rabbit officer. Starting day one she learns all kinds of lessons. She quickly develops her street smarts and cracks the big case.

The city population is roughly 90% herbivores and 10% carnivores. Lately, about a dozen of the carnivores have gone missing. Judy’s sleuthing, aided by a crafty street fox, leads her to their location and a major surprise.

All of the citizens of Zootopia have gotten along fine since forever but there is a lingering , maybe unspoken fear the meat-eaters might, just might go wild. They do. It turns out the missing predators have all mysteriously started acting like wild, violent animals; they go primal. The mayor, a politician’s politician of a lion, realizes what may be happening and has them locked away in a research facility on the outskirts of town.

He and his co-conspirators are arrested. Judy is a hero. But … there is still the problem of the wilding predators. Is it the start of an epidemic? Fear begins to take hold in the city. In the end there is a rational, if uncanny explanation for the savage behavior – the predators have been unwittingly poisoned.

The case is solved. The poison victims are cured. Everyone lives happily ever after and learns important (yes, PC) lessons about inclusion, not jumping to conclusions, and the civilized necessity of overlooking illogical prejudices. Judy’s street fox friend becomes the force’s first fox officer and they end the movies as partners. In and of itself, that would make for a happy ending to a great movie with some pretty decent morals. It’s not just a cutesy animal movie. It features significant societal commentary.

Here’s my special social commentary, all derived from the manner in which the poisoning of the predators was revealed. What was that political book I was reminded of? It was The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli.

Mayor Lionheart’s deputy was an over-worked, under-appreciated sheep. She masterminded the whole predator poisoning, banking on the mayor’s secretive, illegal handling of the matter. It almost paid off for her. She assumed the role of mayor just in time to feed on the city’s (false) fears of a savagery outbreak. The whole missing and drugged carnivore scheme was a false flag event. It was the same kind of deceptive power-play described time and again in The Prince.

Disney.

Given the politically correct undertones of the movie (to me, harmless), one may safely describe the deputy mayor as a “social justice warrior” (SJW) of the lowest kind. She carefully crafted the false flag and manipulated the people in order to gain power – Machiavellian! I even saw Vox Day’s three rules of SJW behavior in action: the story about the predators was a lie; they (Mayor Sheepy and her accomplices) doubled down to save face and hold onto power at nearly any cost, and; they tried to project their insecurity onto Judy.

So, in the very end, Judy ended up cracking an even bigger case, a case of treason. The ultimate moral of the tale is to not trust the government even if you’re a part of it – especially if you are a decent civil servant like Judy.

“It’s called a hustle, sweetheart.” – Judy Hopps, Zootopia.

“Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception.” – Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince.

One more thing – two more things…. Disney did the latent comedic elements flawlessly. They featured an overweight, donut-grazing, goofball tiger of a desk sergeant at police HQ. Classic. And, in Zootopia the DMV office is run by … sloths. Perfect! Old Walt would own this one.

“Your” government is officially far past the point where it could be possibly reigned in. Next year must hold in store an election. I keep hearing and reading that the Republicans and Democrats are preparing their usual assortment of tired psychopaths from which the little people are to select their future “leadership.” It could be that I have stepped through a worm hole to the past because I keep hearing names like Bush and Clinton.

As George Carlin used to say, “this is the best we can do.” It will never get better. Incredibly, it gets worse every four years. I gave up on voting and political participation a long time ago. I stand by my statement that the last, best chance we had to save the Republic was to elect Ron Paul President in 2008. We missed it. Today, I lead a happy life of personal anarchy. My only involvement with the government is paying taxes and evading the traffic cops. It works well. The sheep still don’t see it.

You may have seen or read about the increasing militarization of government forces – the blurring of lines between domestic police and the standing martial army. I wrote about it previously.

(USA! USA! Google.)

Speaking of blurred lines, I, being a recovering attorney, am THE expert on the Posse Comitatus Act (PCA). The PCA was put into place many, many years ago to halt the use of military forces from providing ordinary law enforcement within the territorial confines of the U.S. It has not worked.

Law after law and action after action have provided a myriad of exemptions to the PCA. Drugs, terror, riots, training – you name it. The PCA is moot.

So it is today that most highly trained, deadliest and most feared elements of our armed forces – the special forces – are on the streets training with local police agencies. It’s like Barney Fife meeting the Seals in Mayberry. Otis better watch out.

The purpose of elite military forces is to carry out daring missions ABROAD (not at home) in order to disrupt enemy activities with minimal effort or notice. They are the last force one should want operating amidst the people at home. This too is lost on the MTV-watching public.

The people are afraid of everything. Should the government announce pillow cases are tools of terrorism, the people will dutifully burn pillow cases in the town square. The fools will demand and cheer as the government bombs pillow factories in places like Libya and Iraq. Imaginary specters are fought with ferocity and pomp.

Meanwhile, real threats go virtually unnoticed. Recently, the same week that saw the U.S. military engage in various live terror trainings in the Southwest (against fictitious enemies) saw real terrorists attack a cartoon convention in Texas. Thankfully, for us, the sane, Texas is not Paris. In the Lone Star State, muslin extremist face summary execution from even lone police officers. Don’t mess with Texas. But, no-one else has drawn the corollary (or disconnect) here. The vaunted military trains for an attack the police can’t handle at the same time the police handle an attack the military can’t. So it goes.

The sheep graze on. Fox News, radio talkers and modern “churches” have instilled in the ignorant people a sense of worship for all things military, all things government – so long as it’s the American military and government. When two groups of drunks meet at the beach, and fight, the sympathy of the nation goes to that group of martial disposition. No mind is given to reality.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has just tried to put the brakes on the monstrosity known as the USA Patriot Act. The Act was intended to grant additional unchecked power to the central government. Some in the Judiciary have noted this and its underlying illegality. It does not matter, as Ron Paul notes. The Bush/Clinton/Bush/Obama/Bush/Clinton/Etc. executive is above the law and will refuse to abide by any Court ruling which limits their authority. The Courts, truly least of the three branches, are powerless to enforce their rulings. The Congress, fat, bribed and stoned into complacency, will do nothing. The sheep graze.

So, pontificate as you will about the coming election. I may listen but I won’t respond. I’m not rude, it’s just that I don’t believe in fairy tales no matter how entertaining. Next November, you go out and waste your time and energy, saving us from the other side. Afterwards, you may find me at the local bar or cigar shop doing what I do. Or, you could just join me in freedom land. Your choice.